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New Mexico State Police end watch of nuclear shipments to WIPP

By Natalie Grossngross@currentargus.com

Posted:
01/08/2013 08:21:12 AM MST

New Mexico State Police says it has decided to stop monitoring nuclear waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad - a decision that WIPP spokesperson Deb Gill said will not have any impact on the nuclear waste plant's operation.

Even though the state police has relinquished its watchdog duties, Gill said the transuranic waste shipments, which are piled onto 18-wheeler trucks and transported across the U.S., have always been - and will continue to be - monitored around the clock by the U.S. Transportation Command, known as TRANSCOM.

"The important thing is that our shipments are monitored," said Gill.

The decision of the state police does not mean that their partnership with WIPP has come to an end. Gill said that they will continue to have access to the TRANSCOM system and that if a truck carrying the waste is compromised in any way - whether it be a crash, spill or hijacking - the state police will still be alerted.

"(If) something happens, they (WIPP) would call us immediately, and we would respond immediately to that area. We're also able to contact them back and we're able to contact the drivers," State Police Deputy Chief Pete Kassetas told KOAT News on Sunday. "I can guarantee we will be able to respond the same we did before, or even in a better manner."

Gill said the state police will continue to be part of the inspection process of the nuclear waste shipments as they cross the border into New Mexico, but the decision, according to Kassetas, "will save up to $100,000 in federal overtime and put more boots on the streets.

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Kassetas also told the KOAT news station that this will keep an officer from having to stare at a computer screen all day when he or she could be working on projects geared more towards the state's law enforcement mission.